The FCC recently issued a Declaratory Ruling about how Job Openings should be posted. What’s changing?

The FCC is now permitting broadcasters (and cable companies) to meet their obligation to widely disseminate information about their job openings solely through the use of online recruitment sources. In the past, broadcasters were fined if they did not, in addition to online sources, use recruitment sources such as community groups, employment agencies, educational institutions and newspapers to solicit candidates for virtually all open positions at any station. Under the FCC’s new ruling, a broadcaster can use online recruitment sources as their sole means of meeting their obligation to widely disseminate information about job openings, as long as the broadcaster reasonably believes that the online source or sources that it uses are sufficient to reach members of the diverse groups represented in its community.

Are there still Equal Employment Opportunity requirements in place from the FCC?

This ruling does not abolish all EEO requirements. In addition to a general obligation to not discriminate in hiring and other employment practices, the FCC rules set out a three-prong EEO outreach program for broadcasters. The ruling addresses only the first prong – the obligation to widely disseminate information about virtually all job openings at a station. The other two prongs of the EEO program are undisturbed by the FCC’s recent ruling.

The second prong of the FCC’s EEO rules requires that broadcasters notify a community group about job openings at the station if the community group specifically asks to be notified of such openings. Stations need to continue to provide such notifications, and to publicize the fact that community groups can ask to be included on the list of groups getting notifications.

The third prong of the EEO program for broadcasters is the obligation to do “non-vacancy specific outreach” – the menu options of efforts stations need to undertake to educate their community about the jobs available at broadcast stations and the training necessary to fill those jobs, as well as the training of employees and others to assume new responsibilities at broadcast stations. These menu options include activities such as internship and mentorship programs, speaking before community groups about job openings, providing scholarships to those interested in broadcasting, working with educational institutions to educate their students about broadcast jobs, training programs to prepare existing employees to assume new responsibilities and similar programs.

Should a station still participate in Association-sponsored Career Fairs, as a way to bolster EEO outreach?

Yes. As set forth in response to the last question, stations still need to do non-vacancy specific outreach efforts to inform members of their communities about broadcast jobs. One of the menu options available to meet that obligation is the attendance at job fairs by management-level employees who are involved in the hiring process. If station employees attend 4 job fairs in a two year period, they get one credit toward meeting their obligations (smaller stations need 2 credits in each two-year period measured from their license renewal filing date to meet their non-vacancy specific outreach requirements, larger stations in larger markets need 4 credits in a two-year period).

Any practices that can be curtailed because of the new ruling?

The new ruling allows a broadcaster to meet its wide dissemination obligation for all of its job openings if they use a single online recruiting source to publicize each opening, if the broadcaster reasonably believes that the online source that it is using will reach members of all groups within its community with information about its openings. That means that the broadcaster need no longer publish ads about job openings in the local newspaper, and need no longer reach out to community groups to publicize job openings (except for those community groups that specifically asked to be notified about openings under “Prong 2” of the FCC’s EEO outreach obligations). However, the FCC suggested that it would be a good thing if broadcasters continued to reach out to community groups with information about job openings and to broadcast information about those openings on their own stations – but those outreach efforts are no longer mandatory.

Do you see any additional EEO-related changes on the horizon?

The FCC is about to commence a wide-ranging review of all of its rules applicable to broadcast stations looking to determine which ones are no longer necessary. Some have suggested that the remaining FCC EEO outreach obligations are no longer necessary. The FCC, under its statutory obligation to assess the character of all broadcast applicants and licensees, can always act against a station owner if the EEOC or state employment agencies find that the station has actually discriminated in its hiring or other employment practices.

Whether the FCC in fact goes further to deregulate EEO remains to be seen, but several commentators have suggested that the FCC divest itself of responsibilities where there is another government agency with more expertise. Thus, some think that, as there is an EEOC to deal with employment matters and other government agencies who deal with labor and other occupational issues, the FCC ought to reduce its duplicative efforts in this area.